Hello Everyone!!!!
The Lord has been so good with our safe travels here in India. I will not lie, a couple months ago India was a place that I was like “yeah I get to visit and serve in this country.” But there was no real excitement for this place until came the time we were about to arrive. I had this excitement for everything about India… the people, the culture, and even the food( I was very nervous about this). More and more my heart began to develop for this place and for these people. The people here are such aware of the spiritual warfare in this world and they are in tuned with it. The first week at the village was so short and my heart fell in love with these people.
The Pastor, his wife, and the boys..oh the boys. We were blessed with a boy’s home first and the children were from 3rd grade to 9th grade, and they loved us and respected us so much. It was all beautiful… the house, the land, and the children…it all is beautiful. At the moment we arrived we all knew we were very tired from all the travel we did in the last 4 days, and communication seemed to be something that was becoming difficult, and irritation began to arise in most of us.
Thankfully when we arrived we all realized that this was something that was against us and trying to get the team against one another, but our Lord is so much greater than that. After calling out the lies that the enemy has bestowed, we spoke the truth of what our Father has spoken and began our ministry for His Kingdom. The days would start off working around the house, and then playing sports with the children later that day. So much volleyball! And the best part they were good at it so it made the competition of it even better ;). Spending time with this family and boys was amazing and humorous at times because we could not figure out for the life of us when do when we stand up after the meal? India is a huge culture of honor, and they wanted to honor us by taking care of us and pleasing us by serving us with everything. Which could be hard because we wanted to help, but there was no clear definition in how to go about it, so some meal times were very long in us sitting there and asking, “do we just get up.” We are still learning 🙂
The one thing though I wanted to share was something that happened last night. We were told someone had to speak tonight, and no one felt led to speak, so we drew names. At the moment I felt the Lord tugging on my heart to speak, but I am not the best with words, and then add public speaking to it I feel like I would be suffocating. My name was not drawn, and I sighed of relief. Then they beautified us for church and then came to time of the service. We worshiped and prayed, but then the time came to speak. The first person spoke, and finished and then the translator was like, “who is next?” I still felt the Lord tugging on my heart to speak, but I kept saying, “No that is not my gift, I can not speak…” But then someone else stood up, and I sighed again of relief. Then the next person stood up and then another… thinking “okay four is enough.” But the words “tell them” kept coming to me.
The translator looked at us and said, “Ladies you all have something to share, do not be shy or nervous, this might be your only time to share with these people and they need to hear Jesus working in your lives…”
My heart sank because I looked out in the crowd and saw what Jesus would see. His children who need love and compassion, and who need to hear the truth and testimony of our Jesus Christ. Finally Jesus gave me the strength to speak boldly of what He was doing in my life and who He is to me! It was a rush and afterwards I became excited. Usually after I public speak I am my own worst critic, but I had so much joy because the Lord has given us all a testimony of His love and His power.
Everyone needs to hear who is this Jesus and what has He done in your life. So I do not know what all this will look like, but my goal is to learn to be bold in my speaking and trust the Lord will guide my words to what He wants me to share.. So I will Speak Boldly, and see what He does <3
